Newspapers / State Port Pilot (Southport, … / Jan. 22, 1997, edition 1 / Page 1
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SOUTHPORT, N.C VOLUME 66/ NUMBER 22 Quinton McCracken helped his major league chances in winter baseball play — 1C 50 CENTS Nej _ Improver. .11 underway ' port Fort Fishe - IB _Oi _ Dosher Volunteers rlea Market reopens Saturday in an upbeat fashion — Page 2 Long Beach Inspections department cleaning-up By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor Town council couldn’t clean-up the issue of clean-up bonds Tuesday night. And, building permits in Long Beach still live forever. Responding to a list of complaints raised by councilor Helen Cashwell in December, Walters Tuesday out lined suggested procedures aimed at improving accountability in the Building Inspections Department. Again, this month, Cashwell assert ed clean-up bonds were not proper ly accounted for and builders were allowed too much time to complete a construction project once a build ing permit was issued. In his report to the board, Walters said staff had reduced, and was con tinuing to reduce, the number of $100 clean-up bonds held on the town’s books for years at a time. He also reported the contractors’ credit accounts, now maintained by the inspections department, would be approved and kept by the finance department. The town allows con tractors who sometimes have manv projects ongoing to purchase build ing permits on credit, but clean-up bonds must be paid in cash, code enforcement officer David Clemmons said. The manager suggested a new policy that would allow building permits to expire after three years, if construction were not completed. After expiration of the three-year permit, builders would have to apply for another permit of one-year duration. Councilor Kevin Bell’s motion to affirm Walters’ recommendation fell, however, when only he and councilor Jeff Ensminger supported it. Councilors Cashwell, Frances Allen and Horace Collier voted to conduct a workshop session on building inspection issues. That workshop will be held February 11 at 10 a.m. Cashwell said accountability problems still existed, as subcon tractors were allowed to perform work on the strength of a general contractor’s clean-up bond. “One thing that’s definitely lack See Long Beach, page 7 Cheerleader collapses, dies Tuesday night An East Columbus High School cheerleader suffered an apparent seizure and died Tuesday night dur ing a junior varsity basketball game in Shallotte. Courtney Bowen, a sophomore, collapsed to the floor with 1:26 left in the game. Paramedics arrived at the West Brunswick High School gym shortly after the call around 6:05 p.m. but could not revive her. Team coaches and trainers, and a registered nurse at the game, all rushed to help when she collapsed. West Brunswick athletic director Yogi Hickman canceled the varsity uirls and varsity boys games that vSere scheduled to follow. Ihe girls were not performing stunts or cheers when the incident occurred. HOWE STREET MARCH Approximately 75 people participated in a community march through Southport streets Sunday in honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday. Marchers joined hands and sang “We Shall Overcome” while a tape of King’s “I Have Dream” speech was played. BRUNSWICK SCHOOLS Pay supplement increase sought By Holly Edwards Feature Editor Low teacher supplements in Brunswick County cause some teachers to feel undervalued and are one of the major reasons many new teach ers ultimately leave the profession, Brunswick County Association of Educators (BCAE) president Linda Callender told the school board last week. Callender presented the board with a proposed schedule for teacher supplement increases that had been approved by a previous board of education but never implemented, and asked the board to include the increases in the 1997-98 budget. The board directed superintendent of schools Marion Wise to study tbe proposal and make a recommendation to the board during budget See Increase, page 7 Helping youths focus of ‘dream’ By Holly Edwards Feature Editor More than a hundred people gathered for breakfast and a roundtable dis cussion of race relations Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Other observances of the holiday included a community march through Southport Sunday, followed by a discussion of King’s philosophy led by the Rev. Ray Gilbert. The main topic of the third annual community breakfast, held at the North Carolina Baptist Assembly, was “How can we create a community in which all children are valued, supported, healthy and safe?” Each table discussed the question and a facilitator presented a summary of each group’s conclusions. Many participants pointed out the importance of community involve ment and the need for action rather than apathy. “I can recall in one of Dr. King’s speeches he said he was tired of taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism,” said Leslie Myrie Sr. “We say a lot and we mean a lot but we don't do a lot.” Myrie said young people in Brunswick County suffer from a lack of See ‘Dream.’ page 7 Room tax By Holly Edwards Feature Editor A 22-member committee will con sider a proposal to implement a one percent countywide occupancy tax in addition to the occupancy taxes currently levied by Brunswick County municipalities and will make a recommendation to Rep. David Redwine (D-Ocean Isle Beach) by March 1. That was the consensus reached Tuesday night during a meeting at Brunswick Community College among Redwine, municipal repre sentatives and members of the Southport-Oak Island and South Brunswick Islands chambers of commerce. The two chambers have proposed the new one-percent occupancy tax to be used exclusively for travel and tourism promotion and marketing. The new tax would yield about $450,000 a year and, under the chambers’ plan, would be governed by a special board appointed by county commissioners, but distrib uted to Travel Pack, a joint market ing and promotion venture of the two chambers. Municipalities now are authorized to utilize the occupancy taxes they collect for any tourism-related func tion -- including providing tradi tional urban services such as police, fire, rescue and sanitation — to the governing unit’s population, swelled by tourists in summer time. Occupancy taxes are generated by short-term rentals of cottages, hotel and motel accommodations. While municipal representatives attending Tuesday night’s meeting said they did not oppose the cham bers’ proposal, most also said they did not want to restrict the amount of money their towns could gener ate through the occupancy tax. By state law, a municipal occu pancy tax combined with a county occupancy tax cannot exceed six percent. Local bills have established a six percent occupancy tax in Bald Head Island, and three-percent occupancy tax rates in Southport and all of the Oak Island communities, as well as many other beach communities in See Room tax, page 7 Chambers ask penny allocation Regional plan is suggested County looks at northern sewer By Terry Pope County Editor County commissioners agreed Tuesday night to study regional sewer for northern Brunswick County more closely and to see if the Town of Belville is interested in selling its treatment plant. Board members cautioned this doesn’t mean the county is ready to jump into the sewer business. But they have given assistant county manager Robert Hyatt the green light to negotiate with Belville to possibly come up with some figures that could provide regional sewer service to the growing Leland, Belville and Navassa area. ‘If we step into this issue, there are sev eral other entities that are going to come to us and want us to step into their situa tions.’ Leslie Collier District 3 commssioner “Before we can be in a position to even make a decision, we need some specifics,” said District 5 commis sioner Bill Sue of L.eland. "If it's going to cost us some money, we re not going to be interested in it. if it’s going to make us some money, we’re going to be interested in it.” The three northern towns have failed at talks to form a regional entity for the northern community. Belville owns a 400,000-gallon-per day plant with state permits to dou ble that capacity. A Northeast Brunswick Wastewater Study Committee reported findings from its regional study prepared by Me Kim and Creed Engineers. Project director Tim Broome said the [.eland Sanitary District alone is expected to double in size from 4,000 resi dents to 8,000 within 20 years. He said it would take a capacity of See Regional, page 7 Forecast The extended forecast calls for a chance of showers on Thursday & Friday with highs mid 50's to mid 60's. Saturday will be fair and cooler with highs in the 40's to mid 50's. INSIDE Police repo* ... 9 District Co irt . .10 Business ....... 12 Obituaries ..... 13 Schools ........ 2B TV schedule . ♦.. 0B Calendar ...... 8B Classifieds ..... $c TOP STORIES ON THE
State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
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